This is still a very early look into the unfinished text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.
Readers’ Version
Literal Version
14:1 The division of the main block west of the Yordan
14These are what the Israelis inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest and Yehoshua (Nun’s son) and the leaders of the Israelisgave them as an inheritance.2Their allocations were made by casting lots for the nine and a half tribes, just as Yahweh had commandedthroughMosheh.[ref]3(Mosheh had given the other two and a half tribes their inheritance on the other side of the river, but the Levites weren’t given land as an inheritance[ref]—4instead of land they were given cities to live in, along with the surrounding fields for their livestock. Yosef’s two sons Menashsheh and Efraim were considered as two tribes.)5The Israelis did just as Yahweh had commandedMosheh—they allocated blocks of the land as permanent possessions.
After the Israelites had conquered portions of the Promised Land and Joshua had grown old, the Lord directed him to divide the rest of the land among the tribes of Israel as their inheritance (Joshua 13-20). The eastern tribes had already been allotted their land under Moses’ leadership (Numbers 32), but they continued to help the other tribes drive out the Canaanites from land west of the Jordan River. The Lord also instructed the Israelites to designate several cities of refuge, where someone could flee for protection from an avenger if they accidentally killed someone (Numbers 35; Joshua 20).
